FarmTrac Troubles

dbear · Mar 8, 2008

SESS said:
...WE dealers sell to friends, familys, churches, county governments, etc and put our name on the Farmtrac product....

Let me add that you more importantly put a face on the product.

gamble77 · Mar 8, 2008

Nassau hit the nail on the head...

oscarlovel · Mar 8, 2008

Bee following this post for a while now, though I've not checked in a couple of months. Sounds bad! Where does all this leave the consumer? I bought my 270DTC w/loader last Spring. Do I now have NO warranty? And is there no resell now? I feel for the dealers, but I also feel for all the folks like me. What about parts availabilty?

tommybr · Mar 8, 2008

Ther is an identical model of your tractor from Montana Tractor, except for the loader.

bluechip · Mar 8, 2008

NassauEquipment said:
When a tractor moves from the Vendor's inventory to the dealer, the invoice is dicounted 1%. The Vendor in this case (Farmtrac) received 99% of the value of the invoice and used the money to cover operations,including their interest payments to Textron for what was on the dealer's floors. The tractors belong to Textron at that point with someone (either vendor or dealer depending on program) paying the interest tab.

I have a big question is whether these are in fact Textron's tractors or if they are the dealer's tractors with Textron simply holding lein position.... This is one the lawyers will probably have to work out... If they are Textron's tractors, then they will have to liquidate all the inventory (either in bulk or piecemeal) and take the loss. If the dealers have ownership then it will be their loss.. MY hope would be that Textron and teh dealers working together and sharing the loss would result in a more efficient means of distribution of the surplus inventory and result in a lower total combined loss for all concerned.... but what do I know, I'm just a small town tractor dealer.

California · Mar 8, 2008

Really worst case: could textron force liquidation auctions nationwide, maybe all on the same day, to recover what they can on these dealer liens?

I think this would force the dealers to buy every tractor outright, since they would still be on the hook for full inventory value (or lien value) but would no longer have a tractor to sell, if they allowed the auctions to proceed.

This nightmare can't happen ... can it?

Tractech · Mar 8, 2008

California said:
I think this would force the dealers to buy every tractor outright.

I don't know too many dealers that could afford to pay off their inventory no matter what brand of tractor they carry. If the tractor is not worth as much now to Textron (as the cost should reflect the FT closure) than the Tractor cost should reflect that to the dealers. If the dealer still has "Textrons" tractors on their lot and they are worried about the goods than Textron should pick their tractors up with documentation of release. I am convinced as I said before that Textron is as guilty of the mess we are in as much as FT. (if not more so)

Ok I said was over being pissed but I feel my blood starting to boil! Blood pressure the ongiong battle!

I believe the we can look back and see that certain things were happening and just didn't realize it. Hopefully we all will learn something from this! I know to never doubt my gut feeling again in this business.
I believe all FT owners should use their tractor as if nothing has happened and I feel they will be ok with parts in the future. Resale will be hurt for a while but if the tractor is doing what you need it to than it would be wise to hang on to it. As for the Owners with the (not even zero) financing issues you are the ones with a reson for concern because the financing is going to make that tractor cost you more that you had planned. Then us dealers: Hopefully the public will realize we truly did not bail and the happenings were beyond our control.

tommybr · Mar 9, 2008

When it comes to the "relationship" between Farmtrac and Textron, I smell a dead rat somewhere....I just hope the truth comes out soon. Ther are some things that just don't add up. Textron didn't get to be a multi-billion dollar company by making stupid decisions...they knew what they were doing...I think it was an elaborate scheme to "dump" excess inventory before the boat sank and try to leave the dealers holding the bag.

SESS · Mar 9, 2008

tommybr said:
When it comes to the "relationship" between Farmtrac and Textron, I smell a dead rat somewhere....I just hope the truth comes out soon. Ther are some things that just don't add up. Textron didn't get to be a multi-billion dollar company by making stupid decisions...they knew what they were doing...I think it was an elaborate scheme to "dump" excess inventory before the boat sank and try to leave the dealers holding the bag.

Sir-I agree with you and think you hit the nail on the head. I feel used and thrown to the curb. Now we wait for the aftermath.

JDeerekid · Mar 9, 2008

I was talking to my local farm trac dealer yesterday as I was looking to buy a new brush hog. I was talking to them about this mess and they were telling me that they heard from a few other dealers that one dealer commited suicide. I can't remember what state but I believe it was Georgia.

Has anyone heard about this????